Keep the beat with Ratatap Drums iPhone app

Ratatap Drums lets your inner Keith Moon run wild, although it might be more fun to mess around with than as an actual recording tool. There’s quite a bit to play with if you’re feeling adventurous, though. Ratatap comes with 10 different drum kits, along with the option to create and save your own custom […]

Ratatap Drums lets your inner Keith Moon run wild, although it might be more fun to mess around with than as an actual recording tool. There’s quite a bit to play with if you’re feeling adventurous, though.

Ratatap comes with 10 different drum kits, along with the option to create and save your own custom drum kit. Finally, your dream of an all-cymbal and cowbell drum kit can come to life.

The drum hits in the app all sound fantastic, and the pressure-sensitive volume is a nice touch. If you quickly tap on a drum head, you’ll get a short, softer hit. But really wail your finger onto your iPhone and you’ll get A more forceful bang on the drum that’s quite satisfying in its own way.

You can also roll your fingers across the kit for some truly excellent drum rolls. It might not be the easiest thing in the world to get a real rhythm going, given that you’re using your fingers and not a foot and two hands, but you certainly have some tricks at your disposal.

As for recording, it just doesn’t work as completely as it could. While the option to record your drumming is available, it’s not as finely tuned as it could be, in large part because of the way looping is handled in Ratatap Drums.

You can record one loop, which you can then play over. In theory, that would be a great way to get a more complex drum pattern going, but you can’t record the loop and the new drumming together. So you can’t record complexly, unless you have some truly dexterous fingers.

While there might be a way around the problem I described above, there aren’t any real instructions for recording in the app, leaving the user to figure it out by trial and error.

So if you’re looking for an easy way to record drum patterns on the go, Ratatap Drums is probably not what you’re looking for. If, however, you’re content to play around with a really fantastic drum sampler, then you could find what you’re looking for with Ratatap Drums.

Dan Kricke has been playing with electronics and writing about them for years. He loved his Sega Dreamcast and now the PlayStation 3. On the iPhone, he's a fan of sports apps and anything that offers new music.